TEDxYouth@Manchester 2011 - Julian Baggini - Is There A Real You?

One of the best known philosophers in the UK, Julian will ask the question 'Is There A Real You? He will draw on the research supporting his latest book 'The Ego Trick' and challenge our audience to reflect on their understanding of the 'Self'.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• TEDxYouth@Manchester
• England
• English
• Julian Baggini
• Science
• Psychology

[HefecTikva]

nothing new..

"I suppose everyone continues to be interested in the quest for the self, but what you feel when you’re older, I think, is that — how to express this — you really must make the self. It's absolutely useless to look for it, you won’t find it, but it’s possible in some sense to make it."

Mary McCarthy 1961

In other words: life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself :)

[dumbo800]

Definitely a very poor choice in graphing a molecule of water. Using that structure, it is formaldehyde (except the double bond to the oxygen is omitted).

[SlipAllCityToy]

Just because it's not a brand new idea, he shouldn't be talking about it?

I think - he was given a chance to reach a major audience with a topic, and he chose an important one.

Stop crying.

Stop crying now.

[marz80801980]

@HefecTikva This is true. This is Soul - Creation at the heart of Being.

[OxiC1eanGuy]

@livefast86 I feel it is more as if we have these collection of experiences, but we are more than just that collection of experiences we also have opinions about those events some of which can drastically change the type of person you are. We must do what we feel to be right and its those decisions during your life, effected by our opinions, which define you.

*idk if that made any sense. [4]

[AmagukBela]

nothnig new, but I like it. He put ti in a very nice way :-)

[Nazareadain]

this is part of why i break out in what is perceived as unexplainable anger whenever I hear people say "just be yourself". if i finally gain the presence of mind to wipe the foam from my chin and form coherent sentences i respond with "which one?"

I don't know about you, but I don't treat my friends the same way i do my grandmother, and i don't go up to her and say "yo momma's so fat" for shits and giggles. We all play several roles, or selves - and none of them are less real than the others.

[ukulelelucy]

This is so fascinating!!!

[BullshiterBader]

Bitch please. I figured this out when I was 13.

[DamionCrane]

Except that people are born with different I.Q. scorses. So they do different things with the same experiances.

[SuntzuMocro]

@whitemoiddes,

Partly true, if you are somehow born without a tongue you will never be able to talk like someone born with a tongue. It doesn't care how much you want or try.

We fancy the believe of being able to overcome our limitations, cause the opposite leaves us vulnerable. But the fact is we are vulnerable.

[WhiteMoiddes]

limits are something you put on yourself